My Urban Ashram Manila Experience

I was invited by Bheng & Michelle to try Flexibility Not Required (FNR), one of the four yoga classes taught in Urban Ashram Manila. The other three are Vinyasa Flow, Ashtanga and Hatha.

Urban Ashram Manila is a full service center with a pool of highly-qualified Yoga Alliance- registered teachers offering a wide variety of yoga classes on regular schedules.

Since I have stopped practicing yoga a long time ago, I was ecstatic to try out this newly- opened studio. It was far from my place so I just went and hitched a ride with Michelle. We were only asked to bring a towel. I asked "No mat?" Soon, I learned that everything is provided for including towel- of course, for a small fee of PhP40.

Flexibility Not Required is a yoga revolution and Ashram's Signature. Developed by Marc Macadaeg, FNR classes teach the basics and foundations of yoga. Class sequencing is built around the sun salutations and is geared towards building internal heat to warm up your body and gradually and intelligently opening your body up in order to make more challenging poses easier to understand and more accessible, building a lot of cardiovascular endurance, strength and increasing your range of motion.

We had a short introduction and briefing before we took the class. There were only four of us in this special class. I learned that I am the only one who has practiced yoga before. All three were beginners.

“There is a misperception that only flexible people can do yoga when in fact, they can build their flexibility through the regular practice of yoga,” says Dr. Ngo. “The flipside to that is, of course, strength. A well-balanced practice should make you both more flexible and stronger than ever before.”

Ok, the photo above didn't just happen ; p Look below lol

with Marc Macadaeg, our instructor that afternoon

I knew Marc because we used to practice in the same studio. He was one of the best yoga students in our class. I was not surprised that he runs a yoga studio now.

Marc Macadaeg is the Director for Teacher Development at the Urban Ashram Manila.

owners and yoga teachers at Urban Ashram Manila

this is my yoga mat

Except for my Klean Kanteen water bottle, everything else was laid out in front of me.

part of the FNR series of poses

Our FNR class lasted for 60 minutes. For the first few minutes, I was not sweating at all. A little later, my sweat trickled down the side of my face. I can feel my body heating up as I do the series of poses. Long time practitioners will not get bored because there are several variations. According to our instructor, beginners will soon have the needed strength and flexibility to join the other 3 classes.

reception

Kenneth Cobunpue furniture and lighting pieces

specialty boutique

Carrying the design philosophy, furniture and lighting pieces by Kenneth Cobonpue, the Ashram is environment-friendly with its engineered hardwood sprung floors, high ceiling, and use of natural ventilation. It has four studios, shower and locker rooms, and a specialty boutique.

hallway

one of the four interconnecting studios

The first environmentally-friendly studio registered with the Green Yoga Association, Urban Ashram Manila offers four generous individual studios with over 200-sqm of studio space, which could fit an intimate group of 15 to a full class of up to 60 students simultaneously.

Aside from having no mirror inside the room, the other thing that bothered me during the practice was the noise coming in from the outside. It drowned the voice of the yoga instructor.

toilet

shower area

locker

our group of four together with the owners of Urban Ashram Manila

After a long hiatus from yoga, I can safely say that I still have the flexibility and strength to practice it. Namaste!

Here is the good news! I have a one (1) month unlimited pass that I cannot use so I am raffling it off to one of my readers!

Michelle Martinez is a hands-on mom to her little princess. She finds time to blog when her little love is taking a nap.
She is passionate about sharing her good finds here and around the world.
She wants her cheery disposition to rub off on her daughter when she grows up.